Tuff-Koat ™ Improves Wear & Corrosion Life

Bluewater Thermal Solutionsuses the Tuff-Koat™ manufacturing process to improve wear resistance and corrosion resistance of agricultural components. Field tests have shown dramatic improvement in service life of components operating in highly abrasive environments. Agricultural components such as tillers, choppers and flails can last three to six times longer in the field before needing replacement.

Tough, hard and corrosion resistant

Tuff-Koat™ offers the hardness of tungsten carbide and the corrosion resistance of stainless steel. Tuff-Koat is made of three key components; an iron-based alloy (for hardness), a nickel-based alloy (for corrosion resistance) and carbide constituents.

Application methods include flow-coating, spraying and dipping of complex shapes

Run-off is recycled for zero waste

The Manufacturing Process

The essential first step of the Tuff-Koat process is the absolute requirement that the part surface be free of any oxides or foreign substances that would contaminate or prevent proper adhesion of the Tuff-Koat. All parts are steel shot blasted to a clean condition in modern, high volume production surface treatment equipment. The Tuff-Koat slurry can be readily applied to virtually any ferrous metal part, using a variety of methods, such as, flow coating, spraying, and dipping. After the slurry has dried, components are processed through a continuous furnace fusing the coating material to the base substrate. Furnace temperatures and atmospheres are precisely controlled, monitored and recorded to assure consistent part-to-part coating quality. This accurate control produces a uniform, smooth, abrasion and corrosion resistant metal coating.

After coating, it is possible to heat treat the base material of the components to required physical and mechanical properties in order to improve overall part strength, ductility, and core hardness.

Pre-cleaning of components prior to Tuff-Koat™ slurry application

After applying the slurry and drying, the components are sent through a continuous furnace to fuse Tuff-Koat™ to the base material.

After the fusing process, every part is inspected for coating smoothness and integrity